The "Bush Doctrine," presented to the world shortly after 9/11,
has collapsed. What happened to those "self-evident truths"
about what we'll do to those evil nations that support terrorism? Those
truths have been all but repudiated, lost in a morass of evasion and accommodation.
The United States has become a paper tiger, engaging in a parody of warnings
followed by. . . more warnings. Predictably, we have encouraged rather
than frightened the villains.

It wasn't this way when our nation began. In 1800, shortly after he took
office as President, Thomas Jefferson had to decide what to do about the
Barbary pirates, who were raiding American and European shipping in the
Mediterranean and exacting tribute from Western governments. At first,
Jefferson tried the short-range pragmatic policy of paying that tribute.
But when he saw that the looting beys of Barbary would not honor any agreements
they signed with Washington, he sent in the Navy to deal with them. During
his -- and James Madison's administration -- the Barbary States swore
off a policy of extortion, ransom, and the seizure of American merchant
vessels. European powers were left to make their own decisions regarding
the pirates. For the Americans, there was no hand-wrenching, no need for
"coalitions," no fear of international opinion, no concern about
our "image." Just self-confident, decisive action, employing
the method chosen by the pirates: physical force.

Jefferson and Madison's response was partially the result of the important
lessons they learnt in the struggle between the colonies and the British
government. As far back as the 1740s, Americans tried to reason with the
mother country. Every argument that colonial thinkers offered in defense
of life, liberty, and property was either ignored by London or answered
with attacks on the character and motivation of the colonials. Every act
of defiance by the colonials was met by another repressive action to "exact
due deference." Americans accepted the
obvious: The British government was not open to reason. American force
was the only response to British force. "Toleration" and compromise
would work only to defeat the colonists and more firmly establish British
tyranny. Freedom and tyranny cannot co-exist.

The Founders then pledged their "lives, fortunes, and sacred honor,"
declared American independence, and faced the 18th century's greatest
"super power."

Today, the United States is the only super power on earth, yet it is
losing to a motley collection of "Barbary pirates" and an international
cabal of dedicated killers. America's political leaders, educated in 20th-century
universities, are stubbornly certain that one can't be certain of anything,
that there are no "self-evident truths," nor any immutable facts
and that no culture is better than any other. There is no right and wrong,
no good and bad. Tyrants, Bush believes, can be cajoled into becoming
benevolent leaders, and bomb-producing metal shops transformed into soup
kitchens. The nearest thing to a "truth," to our policymakers,
is a consensus, a constantly shifting collective opinion about facts and
morality.

The self-evident truths that President Bush struggles to evade are that
Iraq, North Korea, Saudi Arabia, and Iran are our mortal enemies, to whom
death, blind obedience, and self-sacrifice are the sole immutable truths,
and that these countries should be dealt with as Jefferson and Madison
dealt with the beys.

Kim Jong Il

Saddam Hussein, Yasir Arafat, Kim Jong Il, and the ayatollahs have repeatedly
demonstrated that they are not open to reason and that they are determined
to impose tyranny outside their realms. Arafat wants to destroy Israel.
Iraq plays the equivalent of a three-card Monte game with U.S.-approved
U.N. weapons inspectors. North Korea, emboldened by the irrational and
pragmatic policies of the United States, has announced that it will become
a nuclear power, and threatens the United States. Saudi Arabia is exposed
daily as the enemy it has always been. Iran pursues its own nuclear arsenal,
actively supports terrorists and prepares to execute a man because he
called for the separation of mosque and state.

Every one of these facts should have been acknowledged. Action should
have been taken. It was within the military capabilities of this country.
Yet, moral self-doubt and squeamishness about the "arrogance"
of defending this country have simply prolonged and aggravated the crises.

Americans deserve courageous leaders, but President Bush and his advisors
are cowards. They have been disarmed (morally and literally) by pragmatism,
subjectivism, and non-judgmental humility. The Founders had principles
and were moved by moral and factual certainty. Our present political leaders
have none of that. Afraid of being condemned for "arrogance"
(i.e., self-assertion), they are moved only by range-of-the-moment pragmatic
diplomacy. It is a policy that can guarantee nothing but this country's
suicide.

Ed Cline is a novelist who has written on the revolutionary war period
and is a writer for the Ayn
Rand Institute in Irvine, California. The Institute promotes Objectivism,
the philosophy of Ayn Rand, author of Atlas Shrugged and The Fountainhead.
Send comments to reaction@aynrand.org.